Wyoming praised for getting stimulus money to highways

The chairman of the U-S House's Transportation Committee says Wyoming is the best state in the country for putting highway stimulus dollars to work. Federal statistics show that 76 percent of the money this state has received are put out to contract, bid and underway.

A spokesman for the Wyoming Department of Transportation, Dave Kingham, says this just part of the positive feedback they've received for their efficiency.

"If the point of this was to get construction going and give people jobs during this current construction season I think most people say we've done a good job at that."The investigative arm of Congress did put out a report recently showing that states have not done a very good job of targeting economically distressed areas with highway stimulus money. The report did not mention Wyoming, but WyDOT did say their focus was on getting the money out quickly not getting it to economically distressed areas.